Choley

Hello Just found out i need a medical as part of my WHV - ARRGGHHH However, i am a non responder to the HEP B vaccination - this has been proven with blood tests in the UK, obviously as i am a mental health nurse. This wont effect me being a nurse in Oz will it?? Bit worried about this now

Because it is one expense after another,after another, after another. All this money and i am not physically seeing anything for it! It is really starting to get me down now. I am a non responded to Hep B virus injection - do you know if this effects me in any way in oz? I know all of this, ive just had all my bloods and vaccinations here in the UK. There are also only around 7 clinics in the UK!!! Pathetic! I have to travel at least and hour and a half to reach one. Not happy - as you can tell.

Did you need a medical with your WHV visa application??? How much was it ?

Just applying for my WHV as we speak - however, when answered the question do you intended to work as a nurse blah blah i have to undergo a medical??? I am working for an agency in Oz is this correct?? Im so annoyed!!!

Thanks for all your replies guys - guess its just a wait and see game! Its so anxious. Especially because im most likely to start in a secure setting as this is where all my training and experience is! Id love to work in CAMhS

Ali - okay. I hope she see's this post ! Thank you x

i just want to ask a few questions to people who know or who have made the change? Is the medication named the same as the UK? What are the major differences? From what i gather their mental health act works the same way as ares, is this true? What are the hours like? Do mental health nurses have to wear uniform? What is it like if you work for an agency? Are their staffing level issues/ are the patients suited to their placements - i work in low secure now and it should be a medium secure!!! The enhancements are amazing - it seems you just get extra supplements for showing up to work?? What is the average pay cheque as a nurse do you think When i arrive i will have 1 years experience - will i start on the 1st years pay scale or from bottom and work up? Any info you have is great!!

You support a great Football team, not at late but great none the less!!! Sorry off topic and i can't help you!! :? Just thought i'd share that im a scouser and i support LFC!!!

Yeah a lot of people have said its not too far distanced from home, so its not going to be a total culture shock I feel better about it all now - i posted my nursing registration documents about an hour ago and i didn't even flinch. I did think "well...theres no going back now" but i soon thought i don't want to go back!! Just waiting for August is going to kill me!!!

Ha you make it sound easy!! I am excited but nervous at the same time. But i am a chatter box and make friends wherever i go - so i dont see Oz being any different. Still torn over the whole visa issue then, my mind changes every hour!!!

Brilliant - thanks for clearing that up. Makes going over on a WHV easier:)

I thought i was asking a stupid question!!! Thought that would be the answer. God 9 weeks is not long!! EEK. I am going to arrive in September i think on a WHV and travel, see what beinga nurse is like over there and see how i get on that way before looking for a sponsor. How do you find being a nurse in Oz?

Hello! I am going to get my documents certified for APHRA later today, just a quick question. I am sending my application to the Sydney office; I have also requested the NMC to send my Registration details to the Sydney office. If i register in NSW as a nurse is this the only state i can work in within Australia. Or once i am registered do i have the freedom to work anywhere the office is just where i pick my documents up from? Bit confused!

Hey, I have just read you post from start to finish! I am hoping to arrive in Oz in Septemeber. So it was nice to read your experience! How are you finding it? Have you made many friends? This is my biggest worry travelling on my own - i don't cope well on my own in a brand new place! I can imagine i'll be on first flight home! Eek! I am excited! Can't wait for my adventure to begin.

Thanks for your honesty and advice. I appreciate it. I think I will go on a WHV, save like crazy between now and then. I can always change my visa whie I'm over there. Save the costs of medicals ECT too. I know it's not going to be all rosy but I think it has to be experienced once in a lifetime- even if it isfor a year. It wilmget it out of my system and i can move on from the idea or i will love it and call it home. I don't want to commit to something, be unhappy and find myself in a tangled web. I like the freedom and I could probably find bank or agency work. I can choose the days and hours which is perfect for, my age and the lifestyle I want to be living.

Aww thank you. That's a really nice post. My mum and dad are so supportive they are telling me to go, it's the best thing for me, don't worry about them and it will be the making of me. Has your daughter settled in well? Has she settled down and met somebody? I am excited and I will look at it as an adventure. I haven't thought about part time, but from what I can work out the Rotas in hospitals seem pretty flexible and working shifts there is always the odd day off or two! Do ou visit often? Do you like Australia, what are your thoughts on the country?

Yes I am going tomorrow to get my documents certified for a £25.00 fee which isn't bad considering solicitors want to charge £100 a page. This is exciting, I will post tomorrow and also hopefully send my request to the NMC following this once they send me the letter. I will register with APHRA before I out there I'd much rather be a mh nurse than work picking fruit or bar work. After all it is what I love. Do any of ou practice as mental health nurses in OZ? Or general nurses? How do you find it? Are the working conditions better? Is the pay much better or do we break even with the cost of living? I hear in oz they are a bit behind and antiquated in their practices compared to the UK is this true? A lot of UK nurses that I have spoke to seem to get frustrate over this. Any info you have about our working life would be amazing

No I don't think that. There's nothing here in the UK for me, while there could be everything in OZ for me. Who knows if I don't try. Of course I'm nervous, of course it's scary, of course I'm going to miss home. I'm only human and if I didn't then I'd have to be worried because obviously if I didn't miss my friends I wouldn't be a very good friend and I know I'll miss my parents. Landing In a strange country alone will be horrid. It's just the initial fear. I moved away from home to begin my career as a mental health nurse and I haven't been homesick. I've coped quite well actually I've surprised myself. But there's a difference in being a 3hr drive away and a 24hr flight away!! i have the opportunity to come on a 547 visa. I don't know if this would be best i will land, I'll have a job, I'll have routine, I'll have work and an income and I'll have a chance to get to know people instantly or do I use a WHV and take the time to explore OZ, find where I ant to settle and then find a sponsor.what are your views? i am so happy to hear the positive stories, it does make me excited to get there and I've got 7 months to prepare mentally and physically which is what I fully intend to Dom:)

Whoops....Typo! I meant September not Decemeber

I will be arriving in Sydney around 1st/2nd December from Thailand, anybody else around at this time? who would like to travel/ have fun and/or show me the ropes of australia. It would be very much appreciated x

What does school of the air mean ?

Leaving my family, my friends and everything i know. Yes it may not be the "far ends of the universe" but it is the furthest away from home i could possibly get. I am a 25 year old girl, moving on my own, trying to make a better life for me and my future children that hopefully i will have one day away from the UK. I know if it doesnt work out i can jump on a plane back home and return to my life now - which isn't a bad one by any stretch of the imagination! I'm an only child and the thought of anything happening to my mum and dad while i am out there makes me feel so guilty - and yes i know i can't live my life through them but still i am their only daughter! And seen it is virtually impossible for my parents to come and live out there without selling their house and giving up their life savings would be too much to ask. I will be, as you say a fish out of water, i'm a mental health nurse here in the UK and along with cultural changes i know i will have to face some massive professional changes as well as Australian nursing practices. This is why i think it could be best coming out on a WHV , travel get use to the life and find my fave place and then be employed and sponsoured on a 547 visa. I probably will have the time of my life and i am a positive person i just wanted to learn from others experience from moving to OZ!!

HI, I am in the beginning of planning and paying a small fortune for the big move to Oz in September. It is all becoming more real to me now, more scary and sometimes if i think about it for too long i feel physically sick. So i just wanted you to all share your ups, downs, highs and lows when you first arrived in Australia. I know its not going to be easy and i will probaly want the pilot to turn the airoplane around but nothing good ever comes easy.

Yes, Thanks. So APHRA won't suddenly send me a letter and say you need to be in the country in xx weeks. Thats a relief. So send the APHRA registration documents off now. I will get them certified this week. The whole process does cost a small fortune - i hope it is worth it when i am out in Oz. So i'll send my APHRA, arrange for a WHV or S457, arrive in Oz and hopefully start looking for MH work! I don't mind where i go or what the job is as long as it is flexible and i am not held to ransom by a years 457 visa! That has cleared things up a little. Thank You very much

Hello!! This could take a while because i am so confused; i have the basic info of what i need to be doing to move to Oz. The plan is leave the UK on 2nd August fly to Dubai for a week then Thailand for 3-4 weeks then arrive in Sydney on 1st Septmeber, 2013; by this time i would have been a qualified MH nurse for a year. I have my APRHA dcuments here, ready all they need is certifying and then they are ready to be posted. So; do i wait until i arrive in Oz to send to APHRA or send them in a few months time or send them soon as possible? Either way i am not going to have a permanent residential address by the time it is processed as it can take a few months? Do they keep in contact via email? can you chase them if you are in a situation like myself? I have heard they contact you once it has been processed and say "you need to be in the country by such and such a date to pick up your visa"? Secondly, do they request people to have health checks and does this cost around £400?? GEEZ!! Like this won't cost me enough already. :err: However, i've had a lot of help from an agency who will find me an interview, but require me to have a 457 visa on a successful interview before i get any work; with a minimum stay of a year. Is this minimum stay contracted? What happens if i get home sick or there is an incident back home? Am i obliged to stay? I am a bit worried about this. Secondly, maybe i would be best coming over on a WHV - this would give me freedom and oppourtunity to explore and work while i try to settle down? But how hard is agency/nursing jobs to come by when on a WHV? I know MH nurses and nurses in general are in need over there. The woman who has been helping me kind of put me off a WHV as she said there may be a gap in my employment, which wouldn't look too good and can employ OZ Nurses for the same amount of experience as i would have?! This gap wont be sufficiant enough to cause problems will it? and it will show the employer i have conducted my research its where i want to settle on a 547 visa and i am capable of being away from home? Thats my thoughts anyway. I am consantly second guessing myself around both options; my instinct is to go with WHV and send my APHRA registration when i'm over there - but then if i get stuck looking for work i won't have my nursing to fall back on as i won't have my APHRA registration and like the lady said this will incur a gap in my employment history - which has its pro's and con's. Or send my APHRA registration now? Anybody have any experience around this and can help me!! Any advice would be great to help me find a clear path and just give me some encouragement Please!! Thank you